1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus having a carriage that is supported reciprocatingly movably in a predetermined direction and mounted with a recording head forming a dot on a recording surface of a recording material.
2. Related Art
A well-known recording apparatus having a driving force transmission changeover mechanism that can change between a state in which a driving force of a driving force source is transmitted to a driven mechanism and a state in which the driving force is not transmitted to the driven mechanism, uses a carriage for effecting a changeover operation for the driving force transmission changeover mechanism. For example, a known printer enables changeover of a paper feeding mechanism by using a carriage that pushes for example, a lever to operate a clutch mechanism (see, for example, JP-A-6-87242). The driving force transmission changeover mechanism such as that using the carriage as described above eliminates the need for a motor dedicated to operating the driving force transmission changeover mechanism. This achieves further reduction in cost of recording apparatuses having the driving force transmission changeover mechanisms.
In such a known recording apparatus having the driving force transmission changeover mechanism that uses the carriage, typically, the driving force transmission changeover mechanism is disposed adjacent to a dot formation area (an area in which dots are formed on the recording surface of the recording material) of a recording head in a reciprocating direction of the carriage. Further, the carriage is provided with an extended movable range so as to be movable outside the dot formation area. In such a recording apparatus, the carriage movement to the extended area outside the dot formation area will cause the carriage and the driving force transmission changeover mechanism to be engaged with each other, and then a changeover operation of driving force transmission can be performed (see, for example, JP-A-6-87242).
A recording apparatus in which a maintenance operation for the recording head, such as a so-called flushing operation or wiping operation, is performed at the intervals between dot formation control sequences, includes a recording head maintenance area disposed outside the dot formation area. Consequently, such a recording apparatus has required in the past that the driving force transmission changeover mechanism be disposed further outside the recording head maintenance area that is disposed outside the dot formation area. It has also been necessary to extend the movable range of the carriage so that the carriage can move further outside the recording head maintenance area disposed outside the dot formation area.
As described above, the known recording apparatus has the movable range of the carriage extended further outside a moving range of the carriage (the dot formation area and the recording head maintenance area) required for executing recording on a recording material and the carriage and the driving force transmission changeover mechanism are configured to engage with each other in that extended area. Specifically, in the known recording apparatus, an area over which the carriage moves during recording control is completely isolated from an area in which a changeover operation for the driving force transmission changeover mechanism is performed using the carriage, so that the two areas do not overlap each other. The known recording apparatus therefore has a merit that the recording control through a reciprocating motion of the carriage does not interfere with the changeover control for the driving force transmission changeover mechanism using the carriage.
The known recording apparatus, however, has the driving force transmission changeover mechanism disposed outside the moving range of the carriage required for executing the recording on the recording material. This arrangement accordingly requires that the movable range of the carriage be extended further outside the moving range of the carriage required for executing the recording on the recording material. As a result, in the known recording apparatus, the movable range of the carriage is elongated by at least an extended portion of the movable range of the carriage, which poses a problem in that the recording apparatus becomes large in size.